EDITORIAL: Police should conduct field sobriety tests on camera

By Enterprise editorial staff

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, September 30, 2015

A Port Arthur man's appeal of his DWI conviction contains some technical arguments about the scientific validity of the field sobriety tests conducted by police officers. The Ninth Court of Appeals in Beaumont is being asked to consider the efficacy of the exam for Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN), which refers to the horizontal jerking movement a person's eyes can make when they gaze to the side.

Another Christopher J. Campos's appeal is more straightforward: He alleges that Port Arthur police intentionally performed his field sobriety eye exams off-camera to avoid questions at trial.

That's fixable. Every police chief and sheriff in the region should direct their officers and deputies to conduct field sobriety tests in front of their vehicles' cameras.

Granted, sometimes that's not possible. In this case, an officer testified that the eye test was not performed on camera because four drivers were stopped at once and space was limited. Things like that will happen, but on-camera tests need to be the standard, not just a general recommendation. Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Ann Mames, who is handling these cases, even said prosecutors "would prefer everything be on video."

This is not just an obscure point. In a 2008 Waco case, a DPS trooper admitted to being advised by prosecutors to administer eye tests off-camera to avoid scrutiny.

That's the value of video. It provides evidence that can be more reliable than personal testimony. If this debate sounds similar to the one about requiring body cameras for all officers and deputies, that's because it is. The video from an officer's body camera can change a he-said, he-said debate to an examination of actual evidence.

More and more public officials have come out in support of body cameras for officers, but efforts to make the devices a routine piece of equipment seem to be lagging again. It shouldn't take another controversial incident to wake everyone up. Most officers are ethical and cases of police abuse are rare. Video can prove it. The technology is there, so let's use it.